Downtown living, for now, for the privileged few

Michael Driskill took pictures after measuring the rooms in the old Household Furniture building on Chadbourne Street. The students from Texas Tech were doing a site analysis to see what the structure and stability were.

Standard-Times photo by Cynthia Esparza

Michael Driskill took pictures after measuring the rooms in the old Household Furniture building on Chadbourne Street. The students from Texas Tech were doing a site analysis to see what the structure and stability were.

Standard-Times photo by Cynthia Esparza

The two-story brick house in downtown San Angelo that Rod Bridgman moved into eight years ago had fallen into disrepair.

It had been abandoned for 20 years and needed plumbing and electrical work, and the floors and walls needed to be restored. After several years of work - most of which he did himself - he has a unique space that fits his tastes.

"I have no idea how much I've spent," he said, "but I like it better that way."

Bridgman's story of creating the perfect home downtown is rare because the city's core has few housing choices. In all, only about 30 residential units exist downtown, said Bridgman, who heads an informal downtown residents group.

Texas revitalization experts say developing more housing downtown is crucial to reviving the area. San Angelo, though, has little success to point to on that front.

Downtown developments, leaders are finding out, require big investments, a proposition filled with risk because it is difficult to gauge market demand. A lack of off-street parking is another major stumbling block.

Downtown San Angelo Inc. and the city of San Angelo are looking into government subsidies at local, state and federal levels to create incentives for investors to develop housing downtown, said Del Velasquez, executive director of the nonprofit group dedicated to revitalizing downtown.

Leaders are calling for research on the issue, while those who have come downtown to live say they enjoy their experience.

Meanwhile, a group of Texas Tech University students is exploring how vacant, dusty, rundown commercial space can be resurrected into residencies. Recently, the architecture students visited an old furniture building downtown to do a class project that requires them to create designs for turning the space into residential lofts.

"It's a really exciting building," said Matt Bartholomew, an architecture student. "It definitely has a lot of character. There's a lot we can do with it."

Bartholomew said the goal will be keeping the building historical but giving it modern flare.

"The layout may be a challenge because you can only get upstairs from the back of the building," Bartholomew said, "but it could be an opportunity."

John West of West Office Supply at 2 S. Chadbourne St. owns the former Household Furniture Store at Chadbourne and Harris streets that the students surveyed for design plans.

He said his father bought the building in 1976, and nothing has operated from the building during that time - his office supply business uses it for storage.

West said he would love to see the building - with a footprint of about 10,000 square feet - turned into three lofts upstairs and three storefronts downstairs, but the cost of such a project is a big concern. Because San Angelo real estate is always reasonably priced, he said, it makes it tougher to renovate and recover costs.

"I will leave (this project) to my heirs," West said, "if I pass on before it's done."

Velasquez acknowledges West's concerns. Velasquez said his group needs to do research about the interest in downtown housing.

With the limited space available now, it is hard to tell whether few people live downtown because few want to live there, or whether it is just because housing isn't available.

Downtown living might best be marketed toward people looking to downsize and reduce the maintenance of their homes, Velasquez said. Another idea might be jumping on the Angelo State University housing shortages and marketing downtown apartments or lofts to college students.

To get this type of development rolling, Shawn Lewis, city planning director, said the planning division and the City of San Angelo Development Corp. are in the early stages of creating incentives for investment. Right now, the city is trying to make it easier for developers to use land that the city owns.

In December 2006, the city approved a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone in downtown San Angelo, which may also help with new housing. The tax zone creates a separate fund for property taxes collected above the level of the initial year and uses that money for economic development in that area, and incentives for housing development are among the possibilities.

Bridgman said a demand exists for housing in downtown San Angelo. Bridgman, 60 and a former leader of Downtown San Angelo, bought his house for next to nothing, but now has boxes and boxes of receipts he knows he needs to go through.

At first, he could only live in two rooms, and the house had no heating or cooling for two years; he washed dishes in a bathtub.

"It was like camping," Bridgman said.

But he says he would never live in suburbia again. Bridgman, in his capacity as leader of the residents group, said the 12 apartments in the Cactus Hotel have a waiting list of about a year.

About six units downtown have been restored as storefronts on the ground level, with the owners living upstairs, Bridgman said.

"We all feel like we have a secret asset, and we're living a better life," Bridgman said.

He said he loves living near several local businesses and being able to walk to the grocery store. His favorite spot at his house is the second-story balcony, where he can look out at everything going on downtown.

"I can go days at a time without getting in the car," Bridgman said.

He admits that downtown living isn't for everyone - backyards are scarce, and sometimes residents can't park right next to their home.

Susan Daniel opened her downtown business, the Black Swan Fine Art and Glass Gallery, at 118 S. Chadbourne St. in September and moved her home into the space above the gallery. The building took her a year and a half to renovate, but she said she loves working in the same building where she lives.

"It almost has a New Orleans feeling," she said of her home, which overlooks a small courtyard behind the building, where she keeps her dogs.

Steve Eustis of the Steve Eustis Co., a commercial and investment real estate business, has a handful of downtown San Angelo properties on the market.

A few investors have shown an interest in creating downtown housing, he said, but the buildings that would be best for apartments or lofts lack off-street parking.

While Eustis said creating downtown housing in San Angelo is a good goal for the city, he doesn't know how likely it is that it will happen anytime soon. The question is the cost to bring buildings up to code and make them ready for residents.

Another consideration is how much people would be willing to pay to live downtown,.

"An investor would need pre-sold units," Eustis said.

Jim Gaines, a research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&amp;amp;M University, said cities across the state have had a mixed bag with housing developments in downtown areas.

"Not everything will work," Gaines said, "but you have to make sure the first one does."

Cities without downtown housing tend to have a "ghost-town effect" after 5 p.m., Gaines said, but it might be tricky for San Angelo to find a demand for downtown living.

"San Angelo is not big enough that people are tired of commuting," Gaines said.

However, downtown areas have focal points -with shopping, food, and museums - that may be enough to draw people to residential areas there, he said.

"You have to have a little bit of vision," Gaines said. "A lot of times, the first thing is letting it be known that the city is not going to fight it."